I Hope to See

A poem as lovely as a tree.
With many apologies to Joyce Kilmer, I begin with this week's inchie challenge:

And move swiftly to the TwobyTwo.
Not my most inspired, but it's my house, if you could see the house for all the yews and mulberry trees. It's banana yellow (ugh) with brown asphalt shingles (hmm...ugh). The stem walls and the front walk are natural slate in beautiful shades of aqua, green, tan and brown. The original owner was a stonemason and his artistry is visible on this side, the front side, of the house. It's firmly attached to the forty year-old double-wide mobile home that we're slowly renovating.

Ranch
House

The skies are NOT cloudy today, but the clouds were easier to draw than the palm trees behind the house. The palm trees are home to a multitude of cactus wrens. Somebody told me cactus wrens, our state bird, are endangered. You would not know it from my house.

That was a toughie. Next week's is decidedly easier, at least we think it is. Please consider a crack at "Wood" for the upcoming TwobyTwo and spread the word to like-minded artists. There's even a Zentangle angle for tangly people everywhere!

I finish up by posting this week's stab at the Diva challenge. The object was to create a spring string and work it. Earth Day is coming up and the Diva's kids call Mother Earth "Amanda." I had a concept in mind of a ribbon of Earth unraveling and Zentangle is by definition non-objective, so there was some resistance in the force.
I guess.
Regardless, I give you, "The Care and Feeding of Amanda:"

That's what I have to offer thus far this week. It has just been one thing after another.

In better news, my daughter and her beau are once-again an item. Oh, the drama! I guess those potholders really worked. I had a lot of positive feedback on those and gladly share the company information here. Love those guys (and girls!)

Thank you for visiting and your encouragement. Have a brilliant day!

Take Care of Amanda

It's Earth Day 2015.

I've been working on an article on compost in my head for a long while. (It's been a longer while since I've been a journalist and what's worse, I have no set deadline). I have been applauded or accused of being a compost queen for years. Since moving to Arizona, I have moved my compost heaps three times (Try explaining THAT to a mover!). I currently have two bins and a heap of leaves just piled up.
I think it's the easiest thing on the planet to do to help take care of it. But that's just me. I'm crazy like that.

There's a song from Genesis called "Land of Confusion." Written by guitarist Mike Rutherford, the chorus is hard not to associate with today:

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying
To make it a place worth living in.

If you have a spare five minutes, check out the video. It's cold war era and the puppets are kind of creepy. I had to go to the Wikipedia page to figure out all the allusions and all those characters.

I took the Earth Day Footprint Quiz. I failed miserably, but it was assuming things such as my commute would be by car, instead of taking public/mass transportation (while I commute by fuzzy slippers to my desk. Besides, I'm "out there," so to speak) and it doesn't take into account that I'm growing enough citrus for about thirty people, thus adding back into the global footprint. It does say quite clearly that as Americans we enjoy a lot of benefits that a far majority do not, such as clean water and we have electricity available 24/7. It gives me pause.

I've also been following the Reduce Footprints blog. Every Wednesday there's a new challenge to do just that. This month has been about caring for the soil, right up my alley.

A different way to take care of Mother Earth is to promote her care. And that's where Amanda comes in. You can read that explanation on the Diva's challenge this week.

(I've always wondered why our moon doesn't have a cool name like all the other planets moons..It's just a moon. If the earth can be called Amanda...).

Whole World in His Hand
(on recycled paperboard, natch)

That didn't turn out quite as I imagined, but I thought I got my left hand pretty good, including my knobby, arthritic thumb.
I was without my computer all weekend (GASP!), but I did have my phone where I saw a new string on Tanglepatterns.com. Had to do this one:

Flower Fell on the Ground

I wanted to try my hand at Man-O-Man, but the scale was all wrong for this. So I went with only one tile on the tile, instead of the mosaic pattern.
I also tackled the EIM on recycled paper. The word this week is "octopus."

In an Octopus' Garden
Sing along now!

And lest you think I've been forgetting to do my zinchies...!

Recycled printer paper & paperboard

Notice I worked on those pesky triangly patterns, and I think I got them pretty well squared away (Triangles squared!? HA!). I still have the zinchies just in a box. I sooooo need to organize them somehow!

I thank all of you who have interacted with me through this blog. I appreciate all the comments and I attempt to respond to each and every one (sometimes it takes me a bit, but I think I'm all caught up!). And I REALLY appreciate the intrepid artists who are tackling or are interested in my own art challenge blog, Two by Two.  Be sure to check out the amazing artwork on all of these blogs and entertain the notion to try them yourself.

Meanwhile, I'll be working on IAST 89, a fitting tribute to the Queen....